


take my hand (there's something in the night)

by put-out-the-fire (Livinei)



Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: (like all of them ksdkjhjf), (that's just fred and rog), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Getting Together, Hiking, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Sharing A Tent, Sharing a Sleeping Bag, thats how i thought of it anyways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 17:14:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21140288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livinei/pseuds/put-out-the-fire
Summary: “And surely you’re sticking with me right now because you care about my life so much and not because my walking speed is a lot more humane than the others’, right,” Roger teased, somehow getting his voice to obey him again, knocked his elbow lightly against Freddie’s side, and let himself get lost in the sound of the other’s laughter.“That is an added benefit,” Freddie admitted with a shrug, still keeping Roger’s hand in his pocket, and Roger stuck out his tongue out for a moment before grinning as well.OR, the boys go on a hiking trip, and roger's battling with his foolish heart that keeps fluttering at every gaze freddie sends his way





	take my hand (there's something in the night)

**Author's Note:**

> this is a fic i wrote in two-ish days after i my brain spit a "what if they were hiking" and nothing else at me and i was like "alright"

“Whose brilliant idea was this, again?” Roger grumbled, coming to a stop when the friction in his shoe became too annoying. 

“Oh come on, it’s fun!” Brian replied with a cheerful tone, turning around and spreading his arms in an encouraging move. Roger didn’t doubt Brian probably did think it was fun, strange like he was. The nature was nice, fine. He’ll agree on that. But not nice enough to make up for the pebbles and sticks in his shoe, or the soreness in his shoulders after hours of walking with a backpack, or the scrape on his knee.

“Which part of this is fun?” Roger dryly asked, taking hold of Freddie’s arm to keep his balance while pulling his shoe off. Freddie, who seemed way too amused at his plight. But he backed Roger up.

“Darling, I’m afraid hiking is the sort of thing that’s fun in  _ theory _ ,” he said with a slight smile in Brian’s direction, and Roger gave a grumpy shake to his shoe to get rid of the pebbles.

He hadn’t really protested when Brian had brought the idea up, to go out into the wilderness for a few days. None of them had, not really. It had seemed like an okay idea when they were lounging on the couch in the comfort of civilization. But even then,  _ ‘you do realize it’s only going to be enjoyable for two hours tops before everybody is going to start complaining, don’t you’  _ had come from John, and no one had argued with that either, but Brian, in an optimistic mindset, excited about going, had decided to ignore it. 

“It’s a good experience! Getting out of your comfort zone a little, moving your muscles, getting some fresh air, you know,” Brian said, looking at both Roger and Freddie, and Roger couldn’t help rolling his eyes before slipping his shoe back on and straightening back up. Brian gave him a questioning look, with the slightest offended undertone of accusation, “I thought you liked nature, Rog.” 

“I like  _ animals _ . I  _ don’t _ like breaking my ankles tripping over spruce roots and gravel while trying to climb up to the highest point of England,” Roger exclaimed, sticking his hands into his pockets. He was about to put on a scandalized pout for extra emphasis, but then Freddie giggled at him. And Roger forgot to. 

Freddie’s eyes had a warm twinkle in them when he laughed, and Roger decidedly ignored the flutter in his stomach. He definitely shouldn’t be grinning over the thought that he made Fred laugh, right?

“It’s hardly the highest point,” Brian protested, bringing him out of his momentary stupor, and Roger mentally thanked him for it.

“In Roggie’s defense, we’ve been going uphill for the last  _ four _ hours, so it’s certainly feeling like it,” Freddie said with a pointed look, and Roger shot Brian a triumphant glare. Brian returned an unimpressed one.

“You probably wouldn’t be as grumpy if you’d worn appropriate shoes. Nobody hikes in converse.” 

“Fuck off! If you’d mentioned we were going to be out here for days I might have put on something else.”

“I did mention it! I recall at _ least _ four times I mentioned it!”

“You absolutely did not.” 

“Guys,” came John’s rightfully annoyed voice from up ahead, speaking up for the first time in a while, and all three pairs of eyes snapped to him. “Can you all shut up for like  _ five minutes _ ?”

***

It  _ was  _ sort of nice. Sort of. Roger’s mood to complain had miraculously passed when Freddie had laughed, and in any case he did  _ not  _ want to get on the nerves of John when he had to survive in his presence for a few more days, so he’d shut up, and looking around he could kind of see what Brian meant. The sun was starting to set so the sky was painted in soft warm colours, and there were no mosquitoes anymore this time of year, so it could be worse honestly. Seeing a deer for a good ten seconds before it turned around and ran was the best part of the hike so far in Roger’s opinion.

“How likely do you think one of us dying out here is?” Roger thoughtfully asked, picking at a scab on his elbow. He, dragging his feet, had fallen behind from John and Brian who were walking up ahead, but Freddie matched his pace. It was nice. The setting sun bounced off Fred’s hair and shined back from his eyes, and looking away felt more wrong than staring. All was okay as long as he didn’t think about it.

“Oh, I’ll be surprised if someone  _ doesn’t  _ die,” Freddie snorted, giving him a smile when Roger opened a bag of dried fruits and held it out to him.

“So who’s dying first?” Roger asked, plopping a slice of dried apricot into his mouth, and Freddie gave him a teasing look. The wide grin it featured made Roger’s heart do a really weird flip.

“Take a guess, blondie,” he laughed, and Roger raised both eyebrows in mocked shock. 

“What,  _ moi _ ?” he gasped, slapping his hand over his heart, and Freddie’s face showed no remorse whatsoever. 

“You’re going to trip and fall to your death off a cliff, or break your neck falling over a root, or get poisoning from some random wild berry you should decide to eat, or get lost in the woods, or get attacked by a bear, or die of hypothermia because it’s going to rain and you’re gonna get wet because you didn’t bring a raincoat and I’m pretty sure your choices of spare clothes are incredibly limited,” he listed off with a smile and Roger crossed his arms.

“What I’m gathering is, you  _ won’t _ warm me up when I get cold, or heroically stab the bear before it kills me? And here I thought you cared about me,” he shot back with an accusing look, and Freddie grabbed hold of his hand with a hearty snicker, swinging it between them a few times before sticking their joined hands in his jacket pocket. 

Roger’s whole body felt fuzzy.

“‘Course I will,” Freddie exclaimed, and Roger narrowed his eyes, shooting him a distrusting look. “Well– You might have to speak to John or Brian about the bear part, one of them has the knife. I was just saying why you’re the most likely to die first.” 

“Okay, fair,” Roger allowed, and felt Freddie give his hand a slight squeeze. 

“So now that we know the kind of misfortunes you might attract, we can work on avoiding them,” Fred continued with a bright smile. “Can’t have you dying, dear.” 

Roger wasn’t one to miss an opportunity. Even if his brain immediately screamed at him afterwards.

“Why, would you miss me?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow, and cursed his dumb mouth as soon as his heart rose to his throat after uttering it. 

_ Fred’s not going to take it as a serious question _ , he calmed himself.  _ Just banter. _

His answer wasn’t banter.

“Terribly,” Freddie said, eyes surprisingly earnest and not a trace of joking in his voice. Roger’s throat felt tight.

So he might be a little bit in love with Freddie.

Freddie, who thankfully seemed oblivious to it. 

“So this is me, keeping you alive,” he cheerfully said, giving another squeeze to Roger’s hand that went straight up his arm and into his heart, “making sure you don’t wander off alone or fall to your death or eat weird plants. Buddy system! I also took some warmer clothes for you, but of course if you’re dead set on sleeping in my arms I’m hardly going to say no.” 

The only reason Roger didn’t blurt out something embarrassing and potentially revealing again was that his brain temporarily lost the ability to make him speak. He had to take a moment to remember how to breathe again.  _ It’s a joke. Snap out of it.  _

Freddie kept talking.

“So anyways, you’ll be fine as long as you stick with me!” 

“And surely you’re sticking with me right now because you care about my life so much and not because my walking speed is a lot more humane than the others’, right,” Roger teased, somehow getting his voice to obey him again, knocked his elbow lightly against Freddie’s side, and let himself get lost in the sound of the other’s laughter. 

“That is an added benefit,” Freddie admitted with a shrug, still keeping Roger’s hand in his pocket, and Roger stuck out his tongue out for a moment before grinning as well. 

***

It was a good half-hour before they caught up to John and Brian, only because the other two had stopped.

“There you are! Looks like you’ve started to enjoy yourselves again, then?” Brian asked with a bit of a smug smile and a twinkle in his eyes, taking in their relatively content faces and Roger’s hand being held in Freddie’s pocket for some reason, and Roger contemplated seeking out a bear on his own for a moment. 

“Certainly more than we would have while trying to keep up with you lot, darling. I thought we came out here to hike, not run a marathon!” Freddie smoothly responded before Roger could think of something to say. 

“Not our fault you’re slow,” John shrugged from his spot on the ground, legs crossed at his ankles and back leaned against his hiking bag. A sad noise escaped him when a piece of tuna fell off the slice of bread he’d been eating at, and he stared at it regretfully for a few seconds before shoving the rest of the sandwich into his mouth.

Roger slipped his hand out of Freddie’s pocket to drop his backpack to the dirt, an example that Freddie followed, though not removing his eyes from John. Roger absently wondered if Fred missed holding his hand. Roger did. It was easier to simply miss it without thinking anything instead of trying to dwell on  _ why  _ Fred would have held onto him for all this time to begin with. It must mean he liked it, right? Or didn’t mind it, at least. And he’d started it, after all.

“And what if we’d gotten lost?” Freddie retorted at John before looking at Brian as well, who had the decency to look a little guilty, and Roger snickered. 

“Isn’t that one of the things you were supposed to protect me from?” he asked when Freddie’s eyes turned to him, softening as they caught Roger’s. “And now you’re saying we could have  _ both _ gotten lost?” 

Freddie gave a swat at his arm, but it didn’t do much to hide the amusement in his gaze. Roger raised his eyebrow, spreading his arms in a  _ what?  _ gesture, and Freddie shook his head.

“Getting lost  _ alone  _ is what would kill you. If both of us get lost together I can still keep you alive. Speaking of which,” he said, kneeling down to open his backpack and fishing out a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of sweatpants and throwing them at Roger, “Put these on, I’m getting cold just looking at you.”

Not that Roger would have admitted if asked, but he  _ was  _ actually starting to feel pretty damn cold, and the last ten minutes walking he’d been contemplating whether to ask Fred about those clothes he’d mentioned taking for him, or hold on for a little while longer. Freddie responded to his grateful look with a smile. 

“What would you do without me?” he asked with a dramatic sigh when Roger slipped the long-sleeved shirt on over his T-shirt, and unbuttoned his shorts to switch them for the warmer pants.

“He’d freeze, probably,” John replied, unbothered, from his spot, now in the middle of inhaling a second sandwich, and nudged his head to the side towards where Brian’s vague mumbling could be heard from. “Which is what we’ll all do tonight if someone doesn’t go and help Brian set up the tent before it gets pitch black, and since Rog’s changing and I’m having dinner, it’s your performance, Fred.” 

“And what makes you think I know how to set up a tent?” Freddie said with an unimpressed tone, resting one hand on his hip, but slowly set his steps towards Brian anyways. 

“Eh, go and show Brimi how it’s done, what’s one tent against the great Mr Mercury,” Roger cheered on with a grin, and Freddie looked back over his shoulder, lips twitching for a moment.

“Don’t get any ideas, Taylor, you’re joining to help as well, as soon as you get your pants on.”

***   
In the end they didn't get the tent up correctly before John had come to help as well, and it took them ‘embarrassingly long’ in Brian’s words and ‘faster than expected’ in Freddie’s, but at long last the shelter was set up, the sleeping mats were laid down and everyone was snug in their sleeping bags. 

They all fell asleep almost instantly, tired from all the hiking during the day. If Roger had to guess, he’d have said John or Brian, who’d likely be the first to wake, wouldn’t be able to wake him up before noon. He fully intended to sleep until noon. 

Which is why he didn’t understand why he woke up in the middle of the night. 

It was dark, Roger could barely make up a silhouette of Freddie sleeping next to him, and the vague shapes of bushes next to the tent on the outside. He also noticed it was cold, a lot colder than when they’d gone to sleep. Roger thought if he could actually see he might see his breath.

It was quiet out here. Not deathly quiet, Roger could hear the wind rustle through leaves and the light sound of rain hitting the tent, but it was quieter than in the city. 

And then he heard something else. 

Roger quietly sat up, and doing a quick body count confirmed that everybody was in the tent, sleeping, and yet there was a louder rustling somewhere outside the tent. Something was out there.

_ Axe murderer,  _ Roger’s brain supplied as the first option, listening to the sounds outside go about and get steadily closer. At the next moment deciding that it being some sort of a wild animal seemed like a more likely scenario, but somehow that thought not being more comforting by a lot, Roger’s heartbeat sped up. As quietly as he could, he crept out of his sleeping bag and shot out his hand, giving a hard shake to Freddie’s sleeping figure and then covering his mouth to silence his disgruntled groan. 

Freddie rubbed at his eye, sitting up, and was about to ask what the problem was when the thing outside got closer to the tent and they could hear it lightly huff out a sneeze before continuing to...do whatever it was it was doing out there. 

“Remember what you said about me dying first?” Roger uttered in a voice so hushed Freddie probably wouldn’t have heard it had Roger not leant in to whisper it right next to his ear, quietly climbing over Freddie to awkwardly get to his other side and somehow slot himself between him and Brian, away from the tent wall that the creature was close to reaching by the sounds of it. There certainly wasn’t enough room for him, his other leg staying draped across Freddie’s knees, and he was fairly certain he was half sitting on Brian and accidentally poked him in the stomach – or back? He couldn’t tell which way Brian was facing in the darkness – when trying to position himself between them, but Brian didn’t even roll over. “I do not intend to do that tonight.”

His heart was in his throat when the animal got right up to the tent, being on the other side of the wall from where Roger had just been laying before, and took some comfort in Freddie’s arm slowly going around his waist so as not to alert the thing outside. Both of their eyes tensely trained in the direction of it despite not seeing a thing due to the cloudy night covering the moon, Roger couldn’t even guess the size or nature of the creature by its shape, so the only thing in his mind was how the only thing separating them from it was a thin sheet of fabric. 

_ I like animals, _ he ironically recalled what he’d told Brian during the day. He really needs to add an asterisk with a ‘when I can see them and I know what they are’.

Roger thought his heart stopped and Freddie’s breath hitched when the tent wall shifted a bit as the thing assumably brushed its nose against it to sniff it, and then sneezed again. Freddie’s arm around his waist tightened its hold. 

Roger felt a flash of jealousy towards John and Brian who blissfully slept through all of it, completely unaware of Roger and Freddie trying not to make a noise and thinking what they’d do if the animal tried to claw at the tent or something like that. He wasn’t sure how long he and Fred stayed there like that, barely breathing and listening to the animal move around outside. They stayed still for long after it had fallen quiet. 

“I think it’s gone,” Freddie eventually whispered, though he sounded somewhat doubtful, and reluctantly loosened his hold on Roger. Roger had ceased to notice how cold it was while he was fearing for his life, but now became acutely aware of it again. “I think we can go back to sleep.” 

“I think I’m good here,” he whispered back, laying himself down, still in an awkward position and it was in no way a big enough fit. His back was half on top of Brian’s sleeping bag and one of Brian’s elbows was digging into his back, and his leg was still strewn over Freddie’s sleeping bag, and there wasn’t much room to put his arms anywhere so he crossed them over his chest in an attempt to get warm. It wasn’t comfortable, and he was sure all his muscles would be tense and regretful by morning, but no way in  _ hell  _ was he going to sleep next to the wall again. 

Freddie shifted a bit, and then Roger heard the zipper of his sleeping bag open, and Freddie’s hand tapped his shoulder. 

“You’ll get cold. And you’re tiny enough,” his soft voice said, and Roger realized Freddie wasn’t trying to convince him to return to his sleeping bag, but instead inviting him into his own. He didn’t really register that he’d squeezed himself in until Freddie pulled the sleeping bag’s zipper up again. 

It was a tight fit. The sleeping bag was probably meant to be suitable for a person of a bigger build, but not particularly for two people. But Freddie didn’t tell him to get out again, and hey, they did fit, so Roger shifted himself to be on his side while Freddie mirrored the maneuver. He tried not to focus on it when Freddie’s arms circled around him, or the hot breaths he could feel on his face, making his heart beat so loudly in his ears he was surprised Freddie didn’t hear it. Though he might feel it, given how close the were pressed. 

It’s because there’s no room, Roger told himself. He has nowhere else to put his arms. So then it’s surely not that big of a deal that Roger hugged Freddie back in the same manner. There’s just no room. 

He was cold before, but warm now, in Freddie’s arms, and Roger felt a wave of security wash over him. 

The sound of rain on the tent tarp lulled him back to sleep before he knew it.

***

Roger let out a grumpy unintelligible mumble and pressed his face against whatever it was against when someone tried to shake him awake, and felt someone’s arms around him tighten at that. 

“You two are adorable, but it’s time to get up,” Brian’s voice said with audible amusement, and Roger’s eyes snapped open to meet first Brian’s face and then Freddie’s sleepy gaze, lazily roaming over Roger’s face and giving him a warm smile before closing his eyes again. Of course it was Freddie’s shoulder he’d been nuzzling his face into. And he did so again, ignoring the hot thrumming in his chest at Freddie’s fingers slowly tracing faint patterns between his shoulder blades. 

“Literally fuck you so hard, Brian,” he grumbled, tucking his head under Fred’s chin and turning his face a little more towards the ground, effectively blocking Brian’s face and the morning light from view and wrapping his vision into cozy darkness. “We were up for half the night thinking we were going to  _ die  _ and you guys were just sleeping through everything like assholes.”

It took Brian twenty more minutes before he finally managed to convince them to get up. 

For the whole rest of the day, Roger didn’t know whether he was just imagining it or if something felt different with him and Freddie after that night. It was a subtle shift. It wasn’t as if anything really  _ changed _ . It was just gazes, touches lingering a bit more, Freddie looking at him with gentle, twinkling eyes, grasping his hand or putting his arm around Roger so effortlessly Roger couldn’t manage to think of it as anything as just friendly, but it  _ felt  _ different. Softer. Warmer.

It was hard not to notice it, and Roger’s stomach fluttered every time he felt it. 

Nothing had changed. Not really.

Nothing had changed, but he stopped thinking he’s imagining it when it still persisted after a few days.

“What are you thinking about, dear?” Freddie asked, voice light and curious. They were once again trailing behind Brian and John, barely out of sight, and once again Roger’s hand had somehow ended up in Freddie’s. It was comfortable. It belonged there.

“You,” Roger mindlessly said without thinking, before he could stop himself. Freddie’s eyes turned to him, surprised but warm, and Roger felt his blood turn to ice at realizing he’s said it out loud.

“Oh? Do tell,” Freddie prodded with a little grin, and Roger shot back a smile, trying to get his heartbeat under control. God, he was really careless, wasn’t he.

“It’s nothing,” he laughed off, but it sounded just a little too choked. Freddie slowed his step a bit, making Roger slow down as well, and gave his hand a squeeze. 

“Hey,” Freddie softly said, and Roger’s heart melted, “You can tell me anything, you know, right? Tell me.” 

For all the nervous energy that Roger displayed, it didn’t come close to what he was feeling inside. His cheeks were on fire, and there was no way Freddie wasn’t seeing it.

“I’m not gonna spring this on you when we’re still stuck out here and you have no way of getting away from me after hearing it should you want to,” Roger replied with a shaky chuckle, inadvertently clutching Freddie’s hand a bit tighter, and Freddie came to a halt. 

His dark eyes bore into Roger’s, and Roger suddenly became extremely interested in the dirt at their feet, but then Freddie’s hand was on his jaw making him look up again, and Roger couldn’t tear his eyes away anymore. Freddie looked him in the eye, intent, reading him like an open book, and Roger could pinpoint the exact moment he knew. The moment he understood. Because of course Freddie fucking Mercury would be able to stare down into his very soul by a single good look at him and see everything Roger did and at the same time didn’t want him to know. God, he could hardly breathe.

But instead of sadness or sympathy or  _ pity  _ that Roger expected– feared– to see appearing in his eyes after the understanding, there was surprise, that turned to amazement, and then irrepressible, overflowing affection. Freddie’s hand moved up from Roger’s jaw to caress his cheek, and Roger didn’t know it was possible to feel like melting when every string in his body was pulled as taut as they could get. He thought his brain blacked out for a moment when a gentle smile spread over Freddie’s lips as he breathed out Roger’s name and took his hand again with his free one.

“Where did you get the idea that I don’t love you back?” Freddie muttered, lacing their fingers together, and Roger let out a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding, feeling lightheaded all of a sudden.

He certainly wasn’t imagining it when Freddie’s lips touched his.

***

Once again they caught up to Brian and John when the others had stopped to set up camp. Brian took a look at them and seemed to hold back a smirk for a moment, but then didn’t say anything so Roger assumed nobody realized anything had happened. He’d prefer it that way, for now. Everything went normally for the remainder of the evening.

But then, as they were settling in for the night, John spoke up, and:

“You two, do take into account that you’re sharing the tent with two other people, yeah? No funny business until we get back to civilization.”

“Jesus,” Roger groaned, and Freddie’s laughter filled the air.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!! do leave a comment and let me know what you thought of it!!!! <3


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